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Accounts of an impending US-Russia leadership summit have been overstated, it seems.

Only a few days after President Trump announced he planned to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest - "within two weeks or so" - the high-level talks has been put off without a new date.

A preliminary get-together by the two nations' leading diplomats has been cancelled, as well.

"I prefer not to have a fruitless discussion," President Trump informed reporters at the executive mansion on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want a waste of time, so I will observe what transpires."

• Donald Trump says he wished to avoid a 'wasted meeting' after plan for Putin talks shelved
• Letdown in Kyiv as President Zelensky departs Washington without results

The frequently changing summit is another twist in the president's efforts to mediate an conclusion to war in Ukraine – a topic of renewed focus for the American leader after he orchestrated a truce and hostage release deal in Gaza.

While making remarks in Egypt recently to commemorate that truce deal, Trump turned to Steve Witkoff, with a fresh directive.

"We have to get the Russian situation done," he declared.

However, the conditions that converged to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for Witkoff and his team may be difficult to duplicate in a conflict in Ukraine that has been ongoing for almost four years.

Less Leverage

According to the lead negotiator, the crucial element to unlocking a deal was Israel's decision to strike representatives of Hamas in Qatar. It was a move that angered US partners in the Arab world but provided Trump bargaining power to compel Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu into making a deal.

The US president gained from a long record of siding with the Israeli state since his initial presidency, including his decision to relocate the American embassy to the contested city, to change US policy on the lawfulness of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, more recently, his backing for Israeli defense operations against Iran.

The American leader, actually, is better regarded among Israelis than their prime minister – a position that provided him with special sway over the Israeli leader.

Add in the president's political and economic ties to influential Arab nations in the region, and he had a abundant diplomatic muscle to force an deal.

Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, on the other hand, Trump has significantly reduced influence. In recent months, he has swung between efforts to strong-arm Putin and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

The US leader has threatened to impose additional penalties on Russia's oil and gas sales and to supply Ukraine with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that doing so could harm the world's financial stability and intensify the war.

Meanwhile, the US leader has publicly berated Zelensky, temporarily cutting off information exchange with Ukraine and pausing arms shipments to the country - only to then back off in the wake of worried European partners who caution a Ukrainian collapse could disrupt the whole area.

The president loves to tout his skill to sit down and hammer out deals, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky have not appeared to advance the war any nearer a peaceful end.

The Russian president may actually be using Trump's desire for a settlement – and faith in in-person deal-making - as a means of manipulating him.

In July, Putin consented to a high-level meeting in the US state just as it seemed probable that the president would sign off on congressional sanctions package backed by Senate Republicans. That legislation was afterwards put on hold.

Recently, as news emerged that the White House was seriously contemplating shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems to Ukraine, the president of Russia called the US president who then promoted the potential meeting in Budapest.

The next day, the president welcomed Zelensky at the executive residence, but left empty-handed after a allegedly tense meeting.

The US leader maintained that he was not being played by the Russian president.

"As you are aware, I have been manipulated all my life by the best of them, and I emerged really well," he remarked.

However the president of Ukraine subsequently commented on the sequence of events.

"Once the matter of advanced weaponry became a little further away for Ukraine – for Ukraine – the Russian side quickly became less interested in diplomacy," he said.

Thus, in a matter of days, Trump has bounced from entertaining the prospect of providing weapons to the Eastern European country to planning a meeting in Hungary with Russia's leader and confidentially pressuring Zelensky to cede all of Donbas – even territory Russia has been unable to conquer.

He has finally settled on advocating a truce along present frontlines – something Russia has refused to accept.

During his election campaign previously, the candidate promised that he could resolve the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has since discarded that commitment, saying that ending the hostilities is proving harder than he anticipated.

It has been a uncommon admission of the constraints of his power – and the challenge of finding a framework for peace when both parties desires, or can afford to, cease hostilities.